Have you ever had those moments where you look at your backlog of games and say, "why haven't I beaten these yet?". I had that exact realization while I was organizing my bookshelf looking through my collection of Wii, PS3, 3DS, and Vita games. It was around this time that I started thinking about why I haven't played through some of them, and in some cases haven't even unwrapped a few. The games in question aren't particularly long perhaps 9-12 hours max whether I beat all the side missions or not. It's just I don't get in the mood to play them quite as often as a few other games.

Next I started to look at what type of games I love to play, and not to my surprise they were games that took many hours to beat. Open world games such as: Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, Sleeping Dogs, and Saints Row The Third; RPGs like: Fallout 3, Borderlands II, Persona 4 Golden, Pokemon (in general), and Xenoblade Chronicles; and finally online multiplayer centric games like Team Fortress 2, Super Street Fighter IV, Little Big Planet, WWE '13, and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. What I realized after looking through how many big games I had it was no wonder why I hadn't beat games like God of War or Max Payne 3, because I was too occupied with investing in these big games and would get burnt out when trying to play something else.

In a way I was starting to get lazier as I would let games stack up on my book shelf while I played through another round of SFIV online, or embark on another journey in Pokemon Emerald. This gradually started to lead to more problems such as buying particular games then thinking about buying another upcoming game because that looked cool. Before I knew it what was a modest backlog of games grew to something monstrous and chaotic. Dozens of free games I got through PS+, cheap stuff I bought at Pawn Shops, New stuff I bought at retailers both brick and mortar and online, and lastly Steam with their Summer and holiday sales.

Within six short years I amassed more then 400 games in combination with both physical and digital games. A normal gamer who only has maybe 10-12 games max would look at the amount that I have collected and say, "Wow! I wish I had that many games to choose from." in a way I can understand this point of view, and yes it is wonderful to have a variety to choose from, however what good is a collection of something if you don't enjoy them? Why waste money on something only to not use it in six months or a year? Wouldn't you become fatigued of this mindless spending? I was.

Progressively I started to do something about it. When my family needed money for food for a couple of days I sold off a few systems and games. When I really wanted to play something I rounded up a bunch of left over games and traded them in for example, trading in my left over 360 and PSP games towards my Playstation Vita (a product I'm using constantly by the way). Next when my funding for college was cutoff by the Veteran's Administration along with my work hours being drastically reduced down to 16 hours a week I started to rethink my spending habits. No longer could I spend more then $60 a month for games, nor could I take a chance on unknown games I was uncertain about. Quite literally I started to understand why I didn't have the extra time to devote plenty cash to my expensive hobby.

2012 had to be one of the most driest years for my gaming interest in a long time. I bought around 15 games in all, a lot less then what I was accustomed to getting. During these long dry spells I would go back to my backlog and played games I never had the chance to. In those months I had beaten 3 God of War games, Plants Vs. Zombies, Mass Effect 3, Mario Tennis Open, Journey, and a few others. Games that I had put off for so long finally getting played! Even though there were hard times through out 2012 that weighed heavy on me both personally and physically I still endured and continued on by saving money for college, looking for a new job, helping out my family when they need it, etc.

I know for a fact I will never beat every single game in my collection and I've accepted it. There is much more in life I want to accomplish besides grinding to the next level in Pokemon, or earning a new rank in Street Fighter. I am going through every single one of my games and deciding if they are truly worth playing through, or worth another play through. For the games I don't want I am going to give them away to friends, family, or thrift stores like the Good Will. I don't care if I get money for them, or if Game Stop will give me much credit for the newer games I have, I just want other people to enjoy the games I've hoarded for so long and to enjoy them.

A few days ago I thought of an idea that sounded fun. I wanted to create a new profile on youtube and start a series of videos covering my game collection, art work, anime interests, and start getting into the whole "Let's Play" world. I always loved watching others play games because it puts things in a different perspective then your own, and helps you understand why people love certain games. LPers like ChuggaConroy, ProtonJohn, NintendoCapriSun, Lucahjin, and to some extent MadameWario are enjoyable to watch because they're entertaining to watch and I learn alot from each game they play. I feel I too can provide people with some fun quality entertainment, and I would love to help out fellow gamers by playing my absolute favorite games.

To start it off I've uploaded a few videos on Youtube by the name of Jack Heart (aka Dynablade) covering a few of my gaming collections. I would love it if people any and everywhere would at least take a chance by watching my latest video. That way I can fix lingering problems that present themselves, and since I'm new to this whole youtube video stuff I am bound to make my fair share of mistakes.

If you have any helpful suggestions please leave a comment below. Thank you!

By the time I write this I'm sure most of you have heard about this senseless tragedy. 24 year old James Holmes armed to the teeth opened fire in a Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Among those he killed included innocent men, women, and children trying to enjoy their night out at the movies. Thankfully, police have captured James Holmes, and at this moment are trying to open his apartment without triggering a booby trap he set up.

The amount of horrible things people are capable of is truly frightening. In this day and age we all take life for granted as we are doing our everyday tasks. Whenever these senseless acts occur it's a painful reminder of what could happen. We can never predict when these events will happen, but when they do we try to cope and make sense of it all.

As I'm calming drinking my coffee while listening to the news of all the witness accounts I'm feeling sorrow for all of the innocent lives taken so abruptly. My thoughts and prayers goes out to the people who were inside that Aurora, Colorado theater; to their families who lost love ones; to the people who witnessed such graphic unadulterated brutality; and the suspect's family who now have to live with the burden of their own caused so much chaos.

My fellow IGN members let us not remember the people who lost their lives that night as victims. Instead let us remember them as human beings trying to enjoy the pleasures of life.

As we all know Andrew Golfarb is the associate editor of IGN. Did you know however, that at first I thought his name was Andrew Goldar?

Yep that's right, from my lack of concentration I thought that Andrew's last name was that of the old Power Ranger enemy from years long past. I mean I guess you could say that the names were kinda similar......Andrew "Goldfarb" and "Goldar". I mean let's do a side by side comparison, first we have

When we last left off I was talking about what type of team I was going to construct before facing the Pokemon League. I'm happy to say at long last not only did I build the team I had envisioned, but actually went through and beat the Elite Four and the Champion!. It wasn't as hard as I originally thought; however, there were a slew of annoying factors which kept presenting itself including the final battle.

What was annoying

While building my team there were problems that kept popping up, such as locating the right kind of TMs to give my Sceptile. Sceptile has a less then amazing move set to begin with, but what was worse was how few special grass type moves there were. In the end I gave my Sceptile the move set of Sunny Day, Solarbeam, Aerial Ace, and Hyper Beam. Not the best, but decent enough to pass by.

With Wailord I decided to go with Surf, Strength, Rock Smash, and Earthquake. A lot of HMs for sure however each came in handy while facing the Elite Four. The only problems I had with Wailord was her nature. Since she had a Brave nature her speed stat was absurdly low, meaning my opponents kept scoring decent hits.

Another thing that was annoying was the last third of the game taking place while traveling across water. I'm all for having an area where I can face a bunch of water pokemon trainers, but at least make then interesting enough by having stronger, fully evolved teams. For a time I was getting kind of bored because I'd face trainers with the same 2-3 pokemon with the occasional some what tough fully evolved creature.

The Sootopolis Gym I had some problems with as well. For supposedly the toughest gym in all of Hoenn why am I battling gym trainers who have pokemon with terrible stats like Lovedisc? With the different types of water pokemon in the game I'm surprised there wasn't any Tenticruel, Gyrados, or even a Swampert. Infact I never once saw a Gorebyss, Huntail, or a Swampert before I beat the game.

Wallace was a dick pure and simple. I don't think I have ever had a pokemon match where there were so many annoying factors. If it wasn't his Ludicolo's constant use of Double Team, or Milotic's recovering health every few turns it was him using not one but four full restores. While on my last pokemon he used his fourth full restore before I could finish it off with my Magnaton's Thunderbolt.

The over all experience

Pokemon Emerald is a good game that nails the core basics. It's simple, fun, and retains most of what made the original Pokemon games great. Though at times some spots the game drags. From limited decent Pokemon to choose from to the spikes in difficulty there definitely are some issues that need to be addressed if there is a remake.

I'd give this game a 8/10. I did enjoy it despite some issues.

Finally here is the list of the team I used to beat the game:

Sceptile: Sunny Day, Solarbeam, Aerial Ace, Hyperbeam

Wailord: Surf, Rock Smash, Strength, Earthquake

Magnaton: Thunderbolt, Flash, Thunder Wave, Tri-Attack

Altairia: Fly, Dragonbreath, Dragon Dance, Refresh

Camerupt: Overheat, Rockslide, Earthquake, Amnesia

Hariyama: Fake Out, Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Hyperbeam

I love this team because I never had most of them on a team besides Sceptile. Definitely is a great feeling beating the game using entirely different pokemon then your previous playthrough.

What's next?

Since I'll be on Spring Break for the next week and a half I'll have some time to finish up Mass Effect 3. Other then that sky's the limit to what game I'll play through next, maybe it will be a game I've never finished!